Animal experts have issued a warning to people in west London after a colony of aggressive foreign spiders was discovered under Kew Bridge.

A team from the Natural History Museum was called to Brentford on Monday after reports the Tube Web spider is now rife in the area.

Stuart Hine, head of insect information at the Natural History Museum, said: "Unlike most spiders which just go into a ball and scarper away if they can, this spider is seen as quite aggressive. If you approach the insect with your finger or try to pick it up, it will go for you.

"The bite is like a painful prickle with a rose thorn."

Wen Mr Hine took his team to Kew Bridge they discovered several hundred of the spiders' nests hanging from the beams with long silken threads spread out from the small nooks and crannies of the bridge.

Each thread runs back to a spider who feel the slightest vibration from unfortunate beetles, flies or moths and jump out on them.

And, unless there is a heavy frost, Mr Hine believes they could stay in the area for a long time because they fill a niche in the animal kingdom which no British spider has satisfied.

Mr Hine advised that people who find the spider in their home should simply trap it in a glass and shake it out into the open.